In this chapter, the authors use Black Feminist Thought (BFT) to examine the mathematics education and the educational attainment of African American females in a matrilineal line that spans five generations. A cross analysis of school experiences, from a maternal great-great-grandmother to her great-great-granddaughter, reveal a portrait of…

Using a Critical Race Theory framework, this manuscript examines the scholarly literature on the intersection of tracking and its historical use as a method for establishing and maintaining racial segregation in American public schools. I begin by exploring accounts of tracking in American public educational institutions as researched by…

This article analyzes Carter G. Woodson's iconic Negro History Week and its impact on Black schools during Jim Crow. Negro History Week introduced knowledge on Afro-diasporic history and culture to schools around the country. As a result of teachers' grassroots organizing, it became a cultural norm in Black schools by the end of the 1930s. This…

In 1981, Cambridge, Massachusetts, became the first school district in America to replace its neighborhood schools with a "controlled choice" assignment plan, which considered parental preference and racial balance. This article considers the history preceding this decision to explore how and why some Americans became enamored with…

Neo-segregation is the voluntary racial segregation of students, aided by college institutions, into racially exclusive housing and common spaces, orientation and commencement ceremonies, student associations, scholarships, and classes. This study of racial segregation at Yale University is part of a larger project examining neo-segregation in…

Background/Context: Current historical understanding of Hawai'i's territorial period celebrates American education as a crucial influence on the islands' political development. In particular, the territory's public school system represents an essential institution for spreading democratic freedom, fostering social mobility, and, more importantly,…

Access to quality education for all children is a common mantra for countless national and world organizations, such as the UN and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper examines the struggle within two nations who continue to move beyond the impact of racial segregation in the United States (US) and "apartheid" in South…

Despite the strong relationship between geography and education policy, educational research tends to draw from other fields of inquiry such as economics, political science, and history. This special topics collection centers the usefulness of geography and place in educational policy research. The introduction explains the rationale for the…

National education policies reference a representation of an imagined subject of schooling derived from a broader social imaginary that underpins the projects of the state, in a process which I refer to here as 'the logic of policy'. I offer an account of how this representation is derived and propose three conceptual elaborations of this view. I…

This article argues that theories of "decoloniality" provide valuable insights into the social relations of "Model C" schools that have been brought into visibility in particular ways by the wave of student protests during and after 2016. Our starting point is to provide a brief outline of the central arguments made by a…

The colonial nature of South African universities remains a source of debate among students and academics. Decolonization as rethinking academic institutional practices seems less controversial; the specificity of how to decolonize the academia is the core of divergent arguments and contesting ideologies. Consequently, many suggestions and methods…

Opportunity hoarding is a sociological concept first introduced by Charles Tilly. This article explores its utility for historians by examining efforts to exclude different groups of people in a major American metropolis during the 1960s and seventies. This was a period of significant social change, as the racial composition of big city schools…

This article presents findings from a larger on-going study examining the mathematics and science education of African Americans from 1854-1954. The overarching research question was "What type of mathematics education experiences did Blacks living in the South have during de jure segregation?" Archival materials from nine historically…

It is difficult to overstate the importance of segregation for race- and ethnicity-based school funding disparities in the United States. In many respects, unequal educational opportunity depends existentially on segregation. Racial and ethnic disparities in wealth accumulation are perpetuated over generations, ensuring persistent segregation even…

Schools in the United States continue to be segregated by race and socioeconomic status, almost 70 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling that aimed to desegregate schools. Segregation exists in three ways in K-12 schools: (1) Across districts. This is the case in about two-thirds of segregation in metropolitan areas; (2)…